1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to salvage of vehicles and more specifically to a salvage hold down attachment for excavators, which enables an excavator with an undercarriage dozer blade to be used for extracting parts from a vehicle.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,128 to Sharp et al. discloses a machine and method for removing engines from vehicles. Builtrite of Two Harbors, Minn. sells an auto dismantling grapple, which is used to extract parts from an automobile. It is common for excavators to be equipped with dozer blades. There is at least one company who will modify an excavator, so that a dozer blade may be mounted to the excavator. Retrofiting an excavator to attach a dozer blade is an extensive installation process, including welding and fabrication an undercarriage of the excavator.
Applicant's invention focuses solely on excavators that are equipped with a dozer blade from the factory. Applicant's invention utilizes the existing dozer blade bracket. Applicant's invention may be installed in a few hours by removing the pins that mount the existing dozer blade and reinserting the pins into applicant's salvage hold down attachment.
Accordingly, there is a clearly felt need in the art for a salvage hold down attachment for excavators, which enables an existing dozer blade to be removed and the salvage hold down attachment to be installed by the removal and installation of pins, and a grapple attachment secured to a boom or stick of the excavator.